As the Internet continues to grow and become more pervasive in homes, more and more consumer products are expected to be connected to the Internet and interconnected with one another over local area networks (LANs). For example, an Internet-equipped refrigerator can maintain an inventory of groceries and re-order when necessary. An Internet-equipped alarm clock can communicate with a source of current weather and road conditions and determine the correct time to wake up someone. Likewise, a digital picture frame is a processor-based device that may be used like a conventional picture frame to display pictures, such as pictures of family and friends and the like. However, with a digital picture frame, the pictures may be changed and displayed digitally. Some digital picture frames have network connectivity capabilities so that they can periodically download pictures over a modem or broadband connection from the Internet into a local memory for display. Networked devices such as refrigerators, clocks, digital picture frames and the like are examples of networked appliances, which may be defined as dedicated function consumer devices containing a networked processor. That is, a networked appliance is a less fully featured processor-based device that has a network connection.
One problem with a networked appliance as well as many other types of networked devices is that they often have limited user input capabilities. This presents a problem if the networked device needs to receive or otherwise become associated with data over the Internet. For example, a screen-based appliance such as a digital picture frame may only have a user interface that comprises a few buttons on its screen, perhaps with a screen based keyboard to enter more complex data. Such keyboards are cumbersome at best, because the user generally must use arrow buttons to navigate to the desired character and hit “enter” to get the data into the picture frame. Overall, the limited user input capabilities of digital picture frames make it difficult to handle, store and transfer digital media files, particularly when attempting to download such files from a server hosting a web based service. For instance, in order to download digital media files, digital media frames often need to be configured to access the appropriate service, which typically requires typing in a URL for the service. Likewise, a networked refrigerator may need to download a shopping list over the Internet. In both these cases it is relatively cumbersome to type the information needed to associate the device with the desired information given the limited input capabilities of such networked devices and appliances.